ADVENTURE AWAITS!

In case you've been wondering where I've been... (it's been months.) I have been getting ready for the trip of a lifetime. I will be going to Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 3 days! I can't even believe it. My bags are packed, but I'm not quite ready to go. I will be gone for 16 days and can't wait for the adventure that awaits me!

I will be blogging my whole journey on my other blog, where you should look for daily videos, tweets, pictures, and as much content I can write. (I'm not sure what kind of internet connection I'll have there..)

Anyways, I am using my wordpress blog for this trip, because I want to use that blog solely as a TRAVEL blog to document all of my travels - starting with this one, where as this one is a catch all the random thoughts in my head every few months blog.

Stay tuned. And happy traveling.

home for the holidays

I am home for Christmas break for a whole MONTH. Can you believe it??? I have only been here for 3 days and I'm already in the swing of NOT studying and NOT going to class... hahaha

While the parents are off gallivanting and creating mischief and mahem in New York City, I was left alone to face the tiny terror, and Buddy. ;)

Harrison and I are having a blast! We have gone shopping, out to dinner, to the library (twice) and rented movies. We've also baked cookies and recorded lots of videos!

I am so happy that I have got to have him for 3 days all to myself. :)

Kristen flies in tonight, so when Harrison goes to school tomorrow I won't have to be all alone.

P.S. Harrison and I scored big time on the library movies.... seriously... we got like 7 NEW RELEASES and we are so excited to watch one later tonight!

Allright... well I better go before someone burns the house down.

P.P.S. it SNOWED today!!!!!!! (well there were fluries in the sky... that counts, right?)

Senior Year.

This is me....

How can my senior year of college nearly be over? With the realization that I have only a semester left, I am starting to panic.. (and the parents and coming in hot with the WHAT IS THE STATUS OF YOUR JOB SITUATION? questions)

This week is exam week, and I am actually really enjoying it. I only have to take 2 exams, and they aren't until the middle of the week, so I have plenty of time to study. I thought I would take a minute to reflect and celebrate the things I have loved about this semester... and maybe a few things that have been less than ideal.

#1 My beautiful apartment!

I have loved living off campus for the first time in my college career. It is in a great location and I have loved decorating it. However the best thing about my apartment isn't having my own giant room and bathroom, it isn't having a great big patio with rope lights, or even having an awesome living room filled with tons of comfy furniture and a giant flat screen tv, it's the people I live with.

This year I have been blessed with the privilege of rooming in a beautiful place with 2 of my best friends.

Sarah and Megan make life at Traditions so much fun. We constantly have a cake in Megan's cake dish, enjoy late night movie marathons and laugh all the time about ridiculously silly things. They are caring and considerate and best of all clean! :)

#2 Alabama football!

This year I went to 6/7 home games. (I missed the homecoming game against Ole Miss, because I took a road trip to North Carolina with mom for Katrina (Taitt) Martin's wedding... which was sooo worth it!!) The games were full of spirit and excitement... and I made it onto the jumbotron TWICE this year! I sat with different groups of people throughout the season and always enjoyed finding Sarah out on the field during half time.

Dad and Harrison came down and tailgated at the Penn State game, a first experience. We did it to the nines, with the tent, chairs, food, and a flat screen tv. Only problem was the fact that there were 200,000 people on campus, it was 98 degrees and then it rained. Hahaa... oh the memories.... Another highlight was having Ben and Dana & Mom and Dad coming down for the Georgia State game. It was so fun to have them all here, and take them around my city and show them the campus!!! I was also able to go to one away game, which was one of my favorite experiences this semester.

#3 Ceramics class!

Now I know some of you may find this surprising that ceramics ended up on my list of GOOD memories... because I will admit that at the beginning of the semester I was a big complainer about being in ceramics. However, as the weeks went on, I began to get the hang of it... and yes, even though I left class looking like a filthy homeless woman, I was having so much fun I didn't really care.

I made 4 tiles, 11 bowls, 5 candle lanterns, 4 pinch-pot fruits and vegetables, 6 mugs and a pouring vessel, 1 serving tray (that didn't get to be glazed because of a devastating crack down the middle), 1 slab tea pot, 1 lidded form, 2 large coil pot vases, 26 Christmas surprises.

So, does that sound like a lot to you? Because it should! It is a TON. I have been in the clay lab everyday for the past 3 weeks, on top of our 6 hours a week in class, in order to complete all of these projects and little extras.

The best part of the class, besides the gratification of making something completely special and new, was the friends I made. Granted in most classes you make friends that you may talk to in class, but once the class ends, so does your friendship. Not this one. I enjoy these girls so much, and we have so many friends in common, we couldn't believe we hadn't been friends before now. I will definitely miss ceramics class with Courtney Phillips and Stacey Brantley next semester.

#4 Holiday parties!

I'm sure by now you know that I am an avid list maker and planner. I have had the joy of planning and hosting several parties this semester. The Top Parties of the semester in my mind are Kate's birthday bash, Halloween and our pre-thanksgiving feast.

Since Kate has been in Auburn the past 3 years we have not been able to celebrate her birthday like we'd like to. This year since she is now at school in Birmingham, we planned a big party for her in Tuscaloosa.
Guests included: Thyra Downs, Brittany Breeding, Jess Mann, Sarah Selleck, Tom Coiner, Brandon Hand, myself and of course Kate. It was a perfect group! We had a special dinner at Iguana Grill, made a visit to Innisfree Irish Pub for some birthday fun, then came back to the apt. for a delicious red velvet cake!

Halloween gave me the chance to make my costume for the first time. I don't know why but I have definitely been in a crafty mood this semester. Anyways I had a blast, making my Queen of Hearts costume. We had a small party on a Tuesday night before Halloween (so that Brittany Moore could attend.... what is Halloween without her?) We danced, played games, and had fabulous Halloween themed treats. My favorite were Sarah's mummy wraps (pigs in a blanket) and Brittany's pumpkin spice cupcakes.

That weekend I was able to wear my costume TWO more times and boy was i EXCITED about it!! Once for the Rocky Horror Picture Show with Megan....

...and then again on actual Halloween, with my family. All of that plus a scary movie marathon made this Halloween my best yet.

**Side note: NEVER WATCH THE MOVIE "AUTOPSY" .....just trust me on this one.

The pre-thanksgiving feast was thrown together at the last minute, and was so worth it. Sarah had not seen Ashlyn and Tyler since their wedding in August,

which is so beyond crazy! We had them over for a little Thanksgiving feast, great conversation and card games. It was sooo great to finally catch up with these two! Oh how I have missed them. We will definitely be having them over again soon for a rematch in Spades! (and we WILL win!)

As for the things that I didn't really enjoy this semester, I'm not going to give a story, just a title and a picture... it's better this way, I think.

#1. Auburn football, Auburn fans, and Cam Newton

#2. Same as #1.

(seriously... the hate got so bad at one point that several of my friends and I had to block Auburn people on facebook to avoid seeing annoying statuses.)

Looking forward to Christmas break, my NEW camera that I bought refurbished from woot.com, and going to Germany with my International journalism class next semester.

Until then,

Roll Tide!

Katie

Video Blogging

I have somehow managed to lose another camera. This one has been gone since September, and is one of the reasons I haven't blogged like I should. (because who likes a blog without pictures)
But that doesn't mean I haven't been documenting my life. I recently created a new youtube channel for Vlogs... or video blogs.

Go check out my first few videos and leave a comment on the videos to let me know you found them from my blog. Also, let me know what you think!

www.youtube.com/kwoodvloger

Don't forget to subscribe!!

Katie

arkansas

This past weekend I had the JOY of traveling 9 hours one way to watch the #1 football team in the nation play the #10 team on their home turf. It was amazing.

Photo via Stefanie Dewhurst Photography

We left at 3 a.m. to hit the road.... meaning I got aprox. 20 min. sleep that night. And we drove and drove and drove some more.

I was able to share some of my road trip traditions with my friends such as honking and waving over the state line and screaming in tunnels. (ALOT more fun than it sounds!)

Finally, we made it to Arkansas... and we set up our tent and chairs and popped open the cooler. We tossed a football and waved our shakers. We were in fact THE only ALABAMA tent on the Arkansas campus. Therefore making us a target for Arkansas hate and a beacon of wandering Bama fans who would open up to us, telling us where the traveled from and where they were sitting in the stadium. Or the lone Bama fan would wander up asking for a cup or a drink. (Since they obviously couldn't ask any of the Arkansas fans)

The game, which I hope you got to watch on tv was a gut wrenching nail biter that was good up to the very last play. (the very best kind of game to watch)

Photo via Stefanie Dewhurst Photography

After a million smiles , pictures, cheers and songs from the band we were welcomed with a wave of gratitude from Saban. Which was a perfect ending to our time in Razorback Stadium.

After the game we spent a tired and hungry 2 hours in Buffalo Wild Wings waiting to eat. We entertained ourselves by playing Sweet Home Alabama and Tonight's Gunna Be a Good Night on the jukebox!

Oh and random story... our waiter had a tattoo of a toaster on his elbow.... when we asked him why he said that it was because before he got it... everyone said

1. Don't get something that you'll regret

2. Get something that means something to you

3. Get something that you'll like forever

4. Really think it through before getting one

So he went in on an impulse, made a rash decision, got something that he instantly regretted and meant nothing to him... "Therefore making it the most meaningful thing in the world."

HIS WORDS.... NOT MINE...

We stayed at the Country Inn in Rogers, Arkansas (about 20 miles outside of Fayetteville)

The next morning we got up for a late breakfast at the Village Inn.

Now I don't know if it is all food establishments in Arkansas or simply because we were dressed to the nines in Alabama gear, but it once again took over an hour to get our food out.

After breakfast we met up with one of Tom's old high school friends who actually goes to Arkansas, Brady who gave us a tour of his campus.

He was so cool and even studied for a year in Germany. So obviously we are now facebook friends.

After the tour we headed back to Tuscaloosa, blaring our fight song and waving our national championship flags out the window.

Got back to Ttown safe and sound around 11 p.m. ...exhausted and filled with lasting memories!

Song/quote of the trip:

DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY, ACROSS THE SKY. -Everyone

IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE A TRIPLE UNION - Brady (this made my life)

After giving Sarah the prize of either one golden nugget or a million points for winning the final round of our map game (where I called out a city and Tom and Sarah had to guess which state it was in.... and it was a lot harder for them than expected.. HAHAHA) anyways she won the game and chose the GOLDEN NUGGET!! ...suddenly we hear... .nom nom nom nom from Sarah....

All I could say was... "DID YOU EAT IT!?? ITS NOT A CHICKEN NUGGET!"

It was a lot funnier that it sounds.... trust me.

All in all... AMAZING WEEKEND!!!!

Every MWF I have a 2 hour break where I read the paper, work on hw and people watch in Bidgood Bistro. Today there are asians eating, and I ruined the sudoku.

WEEK IN REVIEW

So it has been a week or more since I last blogged. Not good, but what is good is the time I've had the past week.

Last thursday the ladies at the office took me out for lunch. It was MARVELOUS. My co-worker Kristen cooked lunch for the editorial staff and hosted us all at her precious new house! I could not have felt more special!!

Friday was mom and my birthday. It was the most stress free day I have had in a long time. Needless to say it was practically perfect in every way. Worked at the office for a few hours (they let me come in late AND leave early!) then haircut (not that anyone can really tell, but I like it!) and a quick shopping trip with mom at TJMAXX and HomeGoods (of course I bought nothing.)

Then came home to make a birthday cake (yes I make my own birthday cake, and it is not sad -- i LIKE to do it :)

As soon as it came out of the oven the family headed to OLIVE GARDEN (the most tasty of all places!)

Saturday was my PARTY. and PARTY we did! 8 wonderful friends and I had dinner and dessert at my house, along with a craft and LOTS of story telling. Then there was the most wonderful gifts anyone could ask for. (THANKYOU CARDS ARE IN THE MAIL!)

After dinner we traveled to Brittany's house where we made special drinks, ate peanut butter m&ms, played loaded questions and TALKED till 530 am.

Sunday after waking up from 3 hours of sleep, I met mom dad and harrison, and we drove to Huntsville to drop Harrison off with the grandparents (since camp is over, and all of us are working)!

Monday-Friday have been typical workdays. Spent my free time packing and watching movies... Oh except I didn't go in monday after feeling horrible, and Friday I overslept after my FAULTY alarm failed me. I made it in by 10 (after Kristen called at 930 to make sure I wasn't in a car wreck), mortified... but they assured me everyone does it.

So now it is Saturday once again! AUGUST 7, and I am about to drive to Huntsville with Brittany Moore for Ashlyn's Bachelorette PARTY!

PS. Ashlyn graduated COLLEGE today!!!! SO PROUD OF YOU!!!

Lots of pictures and fun are sure to be seen in the upcoming blog post! Her wedding is in a week and a day!